Thirty Percent Coalition pens a pointed letter.

• Position: BOARD DIVERSITY

Ed. Note: Thirty percent of public company board seats occupied by women by the end of 2015? That is the goal of the Thirty Percent Coalition (www.30percentcoalition.org). The Coalition, which was formed in late 2011 to address the lack of gender diversity in corporate boardrooms, "represents the first time that large institutional investors and national women's groups have joined forces to press companies to improve their governance by adding gender diversity to their boards," according to the organization. In February 2013 the Coalition sent a letter to the 127 companies within the Russell 1000 Index that do not have any women on their boards of directors, urging them to embrace gender diversity. (Last year the Coalition sent a similar letter to 41 S&P 500 companies that do not have woman on their boards and followed up with further engagement, including filing shareholder resolutions, with several of those companies.) Here are several passages from the Coalition's letter.

We the undersigned coalition of industry leaders, including senior business executives, statewide elected officials, national women's organizations, institutional investors, labor unions, corporate governance experts and board members, are writing to urge your company to increase the gender diversity on your board of directors. We believe, and research has demonstrated, that taking such a step will result in bottom-line benefits to your company. Specifically, the goal of our coalition is to assure that qualified women hold 30% of board seats across public companies by the end of 2015. The rationale for doing so is straightforward: companies that embrace gender diversity are better-governed, better-managed and have better long-term growth prospects. This is a win-win proposition for both companies and their shareholders.

Numerous studies have underscored the nexus between greater board and management diversity, on the one hand, and improved corporate governance and financial performance, on the other. This is particularly true when there is a critical mass of three or more women on a board. When women are at the table, the discussion is richer, the decision-making process is better, management is more innovative and...